#3158, Wednesday, December 27, 2023: A Night in Chiang Mai

Post 3158

- 12 years and 361 days since I started this blog -

Journal

(written December 27, 2023)

Read this once (it won't change for the rest of the trip(s): I'll be linking this post to Facebook. If that's how you got here, here's some background: About 13 years ago I started this blog as a food journal. I had a medical situation and needed to lose weight. Initially, that's all I did here: Journal my food intake and my weight. It contributed to helping me lose 20+% of my body weight in 6 months, and continuing has kept me on track since then. I started adding commentary after a while, but lately it has become infrequent. 

While I'm traveling, I let go of the weight-tracking and food journaling (except for food shots when I've eaten something interesting or pretty. And that's where we find ourselves now.

This post is for Graham, who wants me to write every day. I won't, except this once, written the day after my last post.

Tuesdays are for the open mic at North Gate Jazz Coop. I went there the first time in 2017, and, except for the musicians, not much has changed. It's still too small for its popular status, with standing room only inside and outside, with attendees spilling out into the street to enjoy the performances. 

I wanted to try Alice's Restaurant. It had a good reputation as a Thai seafood place, also had Japanese specialties, and it also had a weed shop with a reputation for good pot at a good price. I asked new friends Graham  (UK) and Nikki (Thailand) to join me.

The restaurant is just inside my 20-minute walk limit (anything longer, I take a cab), only a little further from my guest house than my newly-discovered favorite Indian restaurant (I've never been to India, but I've been a fan of Indian food for sixty years, and Chiang Mai has the best Indian restaurants I've ever known).

The walk goes through the Tha Phae Gate, turns South along the moat, then East through Chiang Mai's "red light district" - very tame compared to Bangkok and Phuket, just on the wrong side of family-friendly. There were children in some of the restaurants, in fact.

It was a good walk, I found the restaurant, no problem, and got a good table without a reservation.

While I waited for my friends, I read the rather huge and heavy menu, ordered a 'detox' smoothie, and figured out my order (see the Food Comment below).

Dinner conversation was great, the food, a little less so. I thought my dish, excellent ingredients and well- and attractively prepared, was under-spiced (possibly the first time I've had that complaint in Thailand). From Nikki's mixed seafood dish, I tasted the squid, which she wouldn't eat. I thought it was wonderfully well-seasoned, but overcooked and chewy. Fail. Later, after discussing eating squid and octopus, which Graham had never tried, I had to dissuade him from making this his first.

By the time we got to the North Gate, it was middle of the first set, and the crowd was even bigger than usual.

Before long, some of my musician friends started showing up, including Jubal, a drummer who was the first musician in Chiang Mai I met, back in 2017. A few of my Chiang Mai expat friends from NY showed up. We have a password ("Hey, New York") and a secret handshake that looks a lot like lighting a joint, because that's what it is.

Another NY musician friend offers me some edibles. I'm just a boy who can't say 'no'.

The opening band is great, playing mostly Soul hits, including some Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers, Earth, Wind and Fire, and a great version of Toto's 'Africa'. Graham gets so excited by this, he videos it for a while. 

At 10pm, the jam starts. As it gets going, Graham lets me know he is really high. I correctly guess he's going to bail. When I get the call to play, at around 10:30, he and Nikki are gone.

My Bill Withers cover goes over big, probably because the whole band enjoys playing it. After the applause dies down, the next singer up calls a Beyoncé tune I don't know, so I lend my bass to the house bass player. 

When I get back in, it's a jump blues number led by a funky blues harp player. Everybody's up and bopping, cheering. I finish my turn backing up an old friend, Robert, with another blues, 'My Baby Caught the Train,' and again, it is enthusiastically received.

My turn is over - I've actually gotten relatively good playing time - sometimes my turn only lasts for one song at this jam. But there's another surprise this evening - a younger guy, introduced as Jonathan from New York - gets up, and proceeds to deliver the most incredible beat box vocal I've ever heard. I have no idea how he got some of those sounds out of his mouth, let alone how he was able, live and in real time, with no effects, to harmonize with himself. My mind was blown. I truly didn't know humans could do this. 

I am reminded of all the time I spent at the Village Vanguard in the seventies, digging Rahsaan Roland Kirk blow four wind instruments at the same time. My feelings about him were that he was of a superior species - regular human beings just can't do that.

It's 11 o'clock, the edibles have kicked in. I'm nicely wasted. On my way out, I am stopped half a dozen times by people wanting to take selfies with me. That's something new here. 

My cab arrives. As I get in, I noticed a crumpled bill on the seat. The ride home is only about 8 minutes, I usually walk it, but not when I'm this stoned. I spend the short time on the ride thinking about what to do with the bill. I go through the finder's-keepers argument, briefly wonder if this is some kind of test or prank. I ask myself, what would Buddha do, then, humorously, what would Trump do, so I can do the opposite. 

I give the bill (I still don't know what it is, it is too dark in the cab, and no street lights at this hour) to the cabbie, who unfolds it. It is a Benjamin, a US hundred-dollar bill. He thanks me, indicates he has no change. I explain I just found it in the back seat, it doesn't belong to me. He takes it, grinning. To him, it's a 3500 bhat tip for an 89 bhat cab ride.

I'm feeling pretty good about myself, no second-thoughts or doubts. Getting out of the cab, I sit out at one of the patio tables put out for me by the guest house, to have a little smoke, when Nun, the manager, comes out, asking if I was having trouble with the door. I thank him for his concern, tell him, no, I'm just having a smoke.

With a big grin, he reaches into his pocket and hands me a little brown plastic envelope. "A guy gave me a joint, but I don't smoke. It's for you, if you'd like."

I like. Instant karma? What-ev-uh. 

I'm the luckiest guy in the world.

Food Comment

From Alice's Restaurant, pineapple fried rice with vegetables and tofu.

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#3157: Tuesday, December 26, 2023: Christmas in Chiang Mai

Post 3157

- 12 years and 360 days since I started this blog -

Journal

(written December 19-26, 2023)

Read this once (it won't change for the rest of the trip(s): I'll be linking this post to Facebook. If that's how you got here, here's some background: About 13 years ago I started this blog as a food journal. I had a medical situation and needed to lose weight. Initially, that's all I did here: Journal my food intake and my weight. It contributed to helping me lose 20+% of my body weight in 6 months, and continuing has kept me on track since then. I started adding commentary after a while, but lately it has become infrequent. 

While I'm traveling, I let go of the weight-tracking and food journaling (except for food shots when I've eaten something interesting or pretty. And that's where we find ourselves now.

However you celebrate the end of the year, I hope your holidays are filled with love and happiness.

By the end of the first week here, when the last post was written, I've gotten my rhythm. I've recovered from the trip here, gotten over my jet-lag and time zone dislocation (I'm on the other side of the world from my New York home - it's twelve hours later here than there, thanks to crossing the International Date Line).

I have, happily, done a lot of playing. Mostly, with people I haven't played with before. Mainly Australians, although I'm not sure how they're Australian-ness affects these encounters. And I've encountered some old friends I hadn't seen in a few years, including Jubal, the first musician I met in Chiang Mai. He's an American expat. We follow each other on FaceBook, but we haven't connected in my last few visits here.

Great, as always, running into old friends. I was in a café the other day, an outlet for a good local coffee grower, getting a cuppa joe, and another patron at the checkout looked at me and said, "I know you." I looked at him, he was familiar, but it took me a moment to place him. "Yeah," I said. "We met right here last year. I remember you, but your name...?" "It's your smile," he replied. "I remember that smile. Was it here? That makes sense. I love this place. You play music, right?"

And so, we chatted for a bit. Interesting to think that a benefit of returning to a place regularly, is this sense of recognition, that is, to me, just another aspect of community.

I have for many years known about the benefit of becoming a 'regular' in a scene. It's what I did, unintentionally, when I moved to Syracuse in 2008 - a total stranger to the scene. I became a regular at a few open mics, and my community - which is the reason I'm still there - grew out of that.

So now, when I show up in Chiang Mai, at Boy Blues Bar, or the North Gate Jazz Co-op, or (this year) the Troubadour, I have people asking me when I'm going to play, and, occasionally, asking me for more after I play.

I am, of course, conspicuous here. I'm taller than almost everybody here, and white beards aren't common (although old white men are). The combination of the two makes me pretty conspicuous here, and something about it invites strangers to start conversations. Some of which have led to friendships. That's one thing about being a traveler, it breaks down barriers between people who might otherwise never engage.

The hot spell has broken. The weather is gorgeous, mid-70s, no rain. I've been walking more, although quite aimlessly. It just feels good - I feel lighter (which is, given the enormous quantities of food I've been eating, very unlikely), I feel at ease, relaxed.

Part of that feeling comes from the weed I've been smoking, which, of course, isn't a departure from my regular, day-to-day life at home. It's a part of my lifestyle, and, these days, in the places I go, it's a completely moveable part.

So, there's that.

Good weather, good food, good music, good weed. And, most important, good health and a good attitude. I'm the luckiest guy you'll ever meet. I am grateful beyond words, it's a total-body feeling of gratitude for my unexpected, privileged life.

Yes, I know I am privileged and very lucky - I've won the crap-shoot of life. At least by my definition of winning.

Thailand is a Buddhist country, and Christmas doesn't have much meaning outside of its impact on tourism. But here in Chiang Mai, there is a large expat community that is definitely majority Christian, so you do get a lot of celebrating. For me, in the form of special open mic nights.

I've been in Chiang Mai for Christmas every visit but one, and the one tradition was mu friends Ollie and Lulu's Christmas party, always a fun night with - surprise - a lot of music to enjoy. Ollie has been sick, and I haven't even seen him this trip. The party had to be canceled. Sad. Feel better, my friend. 

Instead, I had a great time at Troubadour, which, for Christmas Eve, had a pot-luck buffet and a night of good music, including, yes, a jam, where I got to do a bit of playing. Happy me. 

And, next night (last night, as I write this), at Boy Blues Bar, there was a Christmas jam, and I got a lot of playing time and really enjoyed seeing friends new and old, including a few I hadn't seen (and/or made music with) in a few years.

Things have settled into my regular, day-to-day lifestyle: Eat, sleep, play music, get high. Not too different for me, no matter where in the world I am. Away from home, i meet more new people as I go about all this, but that's because there are more new people for me to meet. I'm nothing but grateful, all the time, everywhere. 

I'm still not inspired to take many pictures, but here's the photo dump of what I have:

Playing at Boy Blues Bar.

Playing at Troubadour. I call the songs I do on acoustic guitar my 'export set' - when there aren't facilities for bass guitar, I grab a 6-string and do my thing.

Random wot shots (Buddhist temples are called wots). I thought the white Buddha came out well.

Selfies celebrating, top to bottom, new friends, oatmeal, Chiang Mai's over-the-top weed scene.

Another random Wot shot.

As Christmas approached, the beautiful street decorations going out in all directions from the Tha Phae Gate were enhanced. On Tha Phae Road, the beautiful trellises were adorned with these purple bells. I've walked this street end-to-end - it is beautiful, and the photos don't do justice to it. This pic is taken from the end of the road at the Tha Phae Gate. When you are looking in the other direction, the trellises frame the lights there. In person, looks dreamy, but I couldn't get a good photo. So it goes.

With the beautiful weather, I've been taking aimless, meandering walks. Something new for me, fruiting banana trees in the front yard.

Another random wot shot.

I watched this cute little girl ring all the prayer bells around the stupa. I wish I had caught her facial expression as she did this - a combination of wonder, happiness and determination.

My friends Jim, Seb and Tommy, at Troubadour on Christmas Eve. It is Sebastian's club. Also, Seb is a dead ringer for Keanu Reeves, and it is amusing to hear the comments about that when people see him for the first time. I've known him since my first trip here, and never gave it a second thought until this year.

Food Comment

In my last blog post, I showed you the remains of Nun's Restaurant's khao soi (Northern Thai yellow coconut curry with noodles) and promised to show you a before shot, which is this. I know, it just looks like a bowl full of fried noodles, but those noodles are sitting above a curry full of (regular) noodles, vegetables and, in this case, chicken. This is an amazing dish and Nun's has this trip's favorite. To it's right, condiments for the khao soi, and that's a green papaya salad up there on the left. It can't be a coincidence that this is the closest restaurant to my guest house.

I am happy to report that two of my favorite restaurants, run by the same people, has opened a new restaurant much closer to my guest house than the older ones. The three restaurants have similar, but not identical menus. Only one (apparently) has my number-one favorite dessert, Goodsouls' raw vegan brownie (no, I'm not a vegan, or a vegetarian, I'm omnivorous and open to try anything. This dessert validates that approach). So, eating at the newest branch, the Downtown Vegan Garden, I chose the raw vegan tiramisu. Magic. New favorite? Maybe.  

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#3156: Saturday, December 16, 2023: Chiang Mai, first week

Post 3156

- 12 years and 350 days since I started this blog -

Journal
(written December 16, 2023)

Read this once (it won't change for the rest of the trip(s): I'll be linking this post to Facebook. If that's how you got here, here's some background: About 13 years ago I started this blog as a food journal. I had a medical situation and needed to lose weight. Initially, that's all I did here: Journal my food intake and my weight. It contributed to helping me lose 20+% of my body weight in 6 months, and continuing has kept me on track since then. I started adding commentary after a while, but lately it has become infrequent. 

While I'm traveling, I let go of the weight-tracking and food journaling (except for food shots when I've eaten something interesting or pretty. And that's where we find ourselves now.

I've been in Chiang Mai, Thailand for a week.

I have never had such an easy arrival. My flight (from Taipei) landed early, and I disembarked with my bass and carry-on, went through customs, hit the ATM at the airport, got a cab to the guest house, checked in (3 hours early, but no problem), and was unpacking, within half an hour! 

A personal record for my arrival anywhere.

A half hour later, I was having brunch with David and Oo, my best friends here, and Chiang Mai's best rhythm section.

In the seven nights since, I have gotten to play five times. My nights have been full.

The days, not so much. It's hot, very hot here for this time of year. Upper 80s, and humid. Tropical heat. Of my five trips here, it's the first time I've experienced anything warmer than 75º, and cooler at night. I know it isn't extreme, but walking around in it really saps my energy.

So, I have been limiting my daytime activities to meeting friends for brunch. Then back to the guest house to smoke weed and have a nice siesta, then get up, eat, and hit one of the bars for music.

Not too different from my life back home, an idea I find humorous, but reasonable. That's kind of the way I roll on these Winter trips.

I don't really think of these journeys as vacations. I'm retired. My life is a vacation these days. I live a pretty drama-free, stress-free life.

When I travel, I don't feel like I'm on a tour. I'm just taking my life to another location for a while. I don't sight-see. I don't have a list of activities. I don't really have an agenda, nothing I'm buying or selling.

I'm just here, and curious and open to see what being here brings, how things happen. The primary rule is, roll with it.

This being my fifth trip here - I will have spent about 6 months here since my first trip in January, 2018 by the time I leave. I've got established friendships, places I go where I am known. It still feels exotic, yet now there is a good deal of familiarity, and it is welcome.

I haven't done anything really new this trip, so there aren't many pictures, sorry. I've only had one meal at a restaurant I haven't eaten at before - a Japanese meal that was quite extraordinary. 

I've already had a few memorable outings. 

I had a great night at the North Gate Jazz Coop jam session. Got to lead a song, back some R&B, then play some blues, with some great players, and we ended up blowing the roof off. I was asked back, always flattering.

I have had the pleasure of a return to Boy Blues Bar, struggling to recover from Boy's passing earlier this year (RIP, my friend). I had feared it might be gone, but it is still going. I got to play a show backing up some friends I've known from my first visit to Chiang Mai. And on a different visit there, I got to see more old friends, but I think the thing I liked most was seeing how much some of the younger Thai musicians I've met over the years have improved. The general level of their playing is much higher.

Just last night, I caught the Sativa Boy Band, an eclectic trio, at Troubadour, where I have had a chance to play a few times. It will be a regular stop. It's worth mentioning the show I saw, because it was outstanding, and would have impressed me in any setting, anywhere - but to hear them close up in the small music bar my friend opened up this past year - what a special treat!

Few pictures so far, but here is the Chiang Mai photo dump:

David, bassist and my dearest friend in Chiang Mai, and I at what has become our default brunch. Oo, another great friend, and, with David, one of the best rhythm sections around, is behind the lens.

Just another Wot shot.

The guest house I'm staying at is just off the street that is closed off from end to end every Sunday for the Sunday Night Walking Street Market. One end is at the Tha Phae Gate. If you go through the gate (which I do fairly often), you get to Tha Phae Road, and see this. More of the same, later.

When you walk through the Tha Phae Gate to Tha Phae Road, and look back, this is what you see. Or did, because they took down the lights (Thai Father's Day/Week decorations) the next day.

In the Fred MacMurray Room of the internationally famous Butter Is Better Delicatessen - Bakery, brunching with the Legendary Taco Bells: My pals Oo, David and head honcho Willie. Good times, great food, fabuolous company.

Random street shot.

The Legendary Taco Bells in concert, L-R: special guest Roddy Lorimar, Willie, Oo, David. It was a great show. I love these guys.

The stage at Boy Blues Bar, where it all began for me in Chiang Mai.

'Backstage' looking behind the backboard at Boy's, at a small part of the Kalari Night Market.

Random street shots.

At Chiang Mai Breakfast World, there are a number of carefully laid out photo op spots. But only one I had a clear shot of from the breakfast table.

I thought you might like to see my favorite weed store. There's one of these about every 75 yards as you walk around Chiang Mai these days. The pot's still expensive (the only thing in Chiang Mai I know of that's more expensive than in the US) but very, very good. Very, very. Did I say that twice? I'm hungry.

I leave you with a couple more shots of Tha Phae Road.

Food Comment

My favorite Thai dish (when I'm in Chiang Mai), is khao soi - a yellow curry with noodles and a variety of proteins. This is what it looks like, after I've eaten everything solid. If I remember, I'll post a before picture at a later date. From Nun's Restaurant, which has the dual virtues of making my favorite khao soi and being thirty yards from my guest house.

From Hummus Chiang Mai  comes  a delicious shakshuka - eggs poached in tomatoes, peppers, onions, and, in this case, chick peas, with cheese. I make a version of this myself, but this used different spices and was really, really good, a new offering at a restaurant I already liked. 

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#3155: Saturday, December 11, 2023, in Chiang Mai, writing about Los Angeles

Post 3155

- 12 years and 345 days since I started this blog -

I'm at it again, at the Troubador, a new-to-me club in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It was opened by my friend Sebastian Nguyen a few months after I left last trip. It is a welcome addition to the music scene. This is my first time playing in Chiang Mai since last January. Pic taken December 10, two days after I arrived.

Journal
(written December 11, 2023)

Read this once (it won't change for the rest of the trip(s): I'll be linking this post to Facebook. If that's how you got here, here's some background: About 13 years ago I started this blog as a food journal. I had a medical situation and needed to lose weight. Initially, that's all I did here: Journal my food intake and my weight. It contributed to helping me lose 20+% of my body weight in 6 months, and continuing has kept me on track since then. I started adding commentary after a while, but lately it has become infrequent. 

While I'm traveling, I let go of the weight-tracking and food journaling (except for food shots when I've eaten something interesting or pretty. And that's where we find ourselves now.

I'm writing this a few days after I arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

I began my Winter travels with a visit with my son, Alex, in LA. Thanks, to some American Airlines dickery, I was in LA for eight instead of nine-and-a-half days. The time passed quickly, but fairly uneventfully. Two exceptions were my first visit to a Comic Con - the LA Comic Con. Then, the night before I left, I got two chances to play some bass.

I haven't done the self-analysis to find out why I am not taking as many pictures as usual. Part of the reason is that I haven't been quite so active in LA, as Alex is working 'regular' hours - and sometimes a little late, and I have been disinclined to do much wandering in this downtime. 

That being said, here is the LA photo dump:

Alex does a very successful TikTok show called the F*cking News, and now here he is showing off his brand of coffee. I'm a bit of a coffee snob, and found it to be pretty damn good. It's comes from a small-batch roaster in Connecticut. PM or text me if you want a url to order. 

Walking towards the LA Comic Con, I encountered a human TV. Not even close to the strangest costumes I saw.

Here's Alex in front of the Coliseum. He co-wrote a feature film, The Legend of the White Dragon, and was scheduled to participate in a panel coinciding with the release of the trailer. The movie doesn't have a release date yet, but the producer (see below) is just dotting the i's and crossing the t's to make sure it goes out at the right time.

Inside Comic Con - I was almost instantly overwhelmed. The crowd, the size, the noise level: It crackled with energy! I'm a pretty low-key guy in this situation, and taking it all in, well, it got exhausting, quickly. So, I took a break after every excursion. 

Alex and I on the way to the panel.

A Reverend Ken sandwich with Star Wars' Emperor and Darth Maul

I don't know who, exactly, the natty Victorian gentleman is supposed to be, but I'd recognize Mr. Fox anywhere. Amazing costumes.

After Comic Con, we went to dinner with LOTWD's executives: The father-son Bat In the Sun production company that wrote, directed, scored, and acted in the film, Sean and Aaron, the producer Phil, co-writer (and son) Alex. The restaurant was just behind me where these pictures were taken, outside the LA Forum, where a Christmas-themed ice skating rink had been built. Very pretty. 

Post-LA Comic Con dinner with the Bat In the Sun Productions team: (L-R) Sean, Aaron, Phil, Alex and I at the Blue Dog, across from the LA Forum ice skating rink. Lots of laughs, good food. 

We caught a walk-through light show at the South Coast Botanical Gardens. We both agreed it was kind of meh, but still, quality time together!

Alex brought me to a wonderful, relaxing smoking garden behind a dispensary. This Buddhist-themed meditation garden is complete with koi pond and beautiful (but frequently noisy) parrots has joined my list of favorite places in Los Angeles. It made for a very pleasant afternoon, at a cost of $10 for a very uplifting pre-roll. Don't it make my brown eyes pink...

This was, like last year, a too-short visit to LA. It wasn't enough time for me to see everybody I wanted to, although I did manage to connect with a few of my friends. But I missed out on more. And I didn't come close to doing a lot that I usually do. 

The night before I left, I did get in some good playing time. First, with Bat In the Sun's Sean Schoenke, who is a multi-instrumentalist and does the music scores for all the productions. So much fun to jam with him, playing a mix of standards, just piano and bass (and, for a little bit, a drum machine). There's an ease to duets, just two muso's playing for each other. Great fun.

Then on to Ireland's 32 in Sherman Oaks for my pal Matt Lomeo's open jam, where I got to lead a set, and do some backup.

It's like a piece of home - a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, there are only some video clips, no pics to show - and video doesn't work for me on this blog, so, there you are.

Two years in a row, I have short-changed my time in LA, and it won't happen again. I may adjust my travels and put LA in the middle or maybe even at the end of the winter - the weather will be better, and I can possibly stay over two weekends, to maximize Alex's availability. He is, after all, the reason I come here.

Still, I don't have the words to express how much I enjoy any and all the time I spend with him. 

Food Comment

This sesame crusted tuna over mixed vegetables with creamy mushroom sauce, was just amazing. Courtesy, Kura Sushi. 

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